Doaa El-Bey looks at the swine flu scare at the start of the academic year and why the Goldstone report was deferred Writers focussed on many concerns at the start of the school year which began Saturday 3 October. The poor condition of some schools as well as a clear shortage in cleaning staff and disinfectants were revealed from day one. The Ministry of Education declared that all school fees were being allocated to cleanliness in the wake of the H1N1 virus. Nevertheless, school administrations asked parents to pay for sanitisers that schools will use. The launch of educational satellite channels could be useful, but it raises fear of a possible closure of all schools due to the quick spread of swine flu. Nehal Shokri pointed out the major preparations and decisions taken by bodies headed by the ministries of education and health to fight swine flu. However, she added in the official daily Al-Ahram that decisions alone are not enough. The current conditions in some schools imply first providing more doctors in schools. It is very important to allocate at least one doctor for every two schools, Shokri wrote. Second, there is a dire need to provide more cleaners because there is a severe shortage in cleaning staff in many schools. Third, some schools which can be described as extremely poor do not have toilets on their premises at all. Given this is a situation that cannot be tolerated, political parties and non-governmental organisations should launch a campaign to monitor hygiene in schools from day one. "Each and every person should contribute to battling swine flu which is close to our doors. Decisions are not enough to guarantee taking all measures in the right and desired way," she added. Iman Raslan looked at some of the issues and problems revealed by swine flu. The virus showed that the real crisis in education in Egypt is in the infrastructure or the shortage of schools which has led to overcrowded classes. As a result, the Ministry of Education declared that some 30 per cent of schools will have to adopt the three-day a week system to confront the danger. The present crisis in education is reminiscent of the 1992 earthquake which showed all too clearly the weak infrastructure of schools and the shortage in the basic number of schools needed to conduct a decent educational process. The 10-year campaign launched in 1992 to build 1,000 to 1,500 schools every year managed to improve the educational infrastructure. Without that campaign, the present situation could have been worse. The rate of spending on education which does not exceed five per cent of public spending is another problem that faces education in Egypt. International scientific studies, including that of UNESCO, state that six per cent is the least that should to be spent on education in order to develop it. The other issue that swine flu unearthed is the quality of education. Raslan criticised the decision to teach two-thirds of the curriculum because of swine flu. Missing one-third of the curriculum is likely to impact quality. In addition, providing education via satellite TV and the Internet is not practical because a sizable portion of Egyptians do not possess a satellite TV dish or a computer. "The issues and problems revealed by swine flu could be a genuine start to improving education. Development and continuous investment in education lead to economic progress and improve the quality of life," Raslan concluded in the independent daily Nahdet Masr. Sherif Riad wrote that the start of the school year takes us to the phase of actual confrontation with swine flu. That phase will reveal whether the plan drawn up by the ministries of education, higher education and health to stop the spread of the disease is successful. However, families are responsible for success together with the three ministries. The family should report any suspected case so that it can be dealt with quickly, the writer explained. Riad criticised parents who have decided to stop their children from going to school because it is not possible to stop the educational process altogether. "Exaggerated fear of the disease as a result of rumours could impede all the efforts being exerted to fight it. Thus the media should inform people about the importance of their cooperation with the bodies responsible so that they combat it together," he wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. Mohamed Mustafa Shordi wrote that this year is one of the most important in the history of education in Egypt due to factors which have been neglected by successive governments -- cleanliness in public places including schools, and the ability to manage crises and take decisions. All these factors represent one test that the government is facing at present. "The test begins now. We will know within a few days or weeks the degree of the government's preparations and discover its ability to face the situation with action rather than statements," Shordi wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. If the government fails, the writer continued, calls will increase for postponing this year and applying an alternative plan, according to which the school year will start in March and continue throughout the summer. The next few days will also witness wide media coverage to discover whether the government fulfilled its promises. Shordi expected that we would still see pictures of overcrowded schools and classes, ramshackle bathrooms and piles of garbage close to schools. "What we know about the government from previous experiments is that it talks without taking action. It needs our prayers to pass this test. Let's pray for the sake of our children," he wrote. Although directly related to the spread of swine flu, the garbage problem was still far from being resolved. Mustafa El-Kholi expressed concern over the rising piles of garbage in Alexandria that he called Alexandria Pyramids. He remembered the good old days when he used to smell the gentle breeze of the sea whenever he visited the coastal city and when its streets used to be washed with water and detergents every night. But now, one smells garbage miles away from the city and is shocked by the state of streets filled with insects and stray animals. But what amazes El-Kholi even more is that every citizen has to pay a compulsory monthly cleanliness fee on his electricity bill. He asked why out of the blue Italian, Spanish and French companies were signed on to collect our garbage. "Gone are the days when garbage collectors used to collect garbage from every apartment each morning. That phenomenon together with cleanliness has become old fashioned," El-Kholi wrote in the daily newspaper Rose El-Youssef.
